


The Kindly Masters

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [27]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-15
Updated: 2019-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:54:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27067477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: "Honestly? I think one of the biggest appeals to me about Hollow Knight is despite being a breathtakingly bleak setting, there’s never the sense that hope or kindness are pointless things."
Series: Clockie's Meta [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Kudos: 8





	The Kindly Masters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts).



Honestly? I think one of the biggest appeals to me about Hollow Knight is despite being a breathtakingly bleak setting, there’s never the sense that hope or kindness are pointless things. 

All three of the Nailmasters ultimately imply this, in different ways.

Oro, who is the most focused on strength, seemingly, has found it irritating and tiring. He’s the one who’s a potential flower recipient, which he insists he won’t do anything with, but puts it in a vase once you’re gone. Kindness moves him more than he insists it does. And some of that may be the subtle implication when you first meet Sly- that Sly may have been hardest on Oro considering in the dream Sly calls him an “oaf” who uses his nail clumsily.

And this is heavily influenced by the Godhome fight against the brothers- Oro tries to face you alone and fails. Mato comes in to back him up not because he’s called, but of his own accord.

Mato, who, according to Sheo, is distinguished not by his skill or strength but by his _compassion_ and earnest love for others, which is definitely a quality he backs up with how kindly he takes to Ghost. And in practice, that second half of the fight is pretty darn tough- but it distinguishes that Mato doesn’t fight for glory or strength, but for his peers, and this proves how powerful he is.

And Sheo himself- the strongest of the three brothers, is literally shown to have gotten more competent and powerful because of laying down his nail and finding something else that he loved. Sheo, the one who, if you play your cards right, falls in love and ends up quite possibly one of the happiest people in the game, and who makes it clear to Ghost that if they’re ever themselves directionless or lonely, he’d love to take them in and help them find a new calling.

Even if the Hunter speaks very harshly about Ogrim, the story makes it clear that not only is the greater thematic implications in Ogrim’s favor, but that Ghost themselves respects him deeply- the description of the White Defender calls him “gallant”, and much narrative emphasis is given on Ogrim gaining respect for Ghost.

And Ogrim, Mato, and Sheo all cover this interesting theme from Ghost’s perspective- as a child who in many ways is raging against their father from the start of the game whether or not we as a player know it, who’s following echoes of the Pale King’s voice on the tablets in the King’s Pass and whose first major, essential action is to respond to the King’s insistence to “obey our laws” is to tear the door down with their nail- Ghost looks for father figures.

Ghost looks specifically for father figures who are kind, who are reassuring. Their experience in Hallownest, and our experience through their eyes, is divided- in one sense, there’s a great deal of fighting, of danger, of tension, and in another, there’s so many interesting, complex people with stories and lives and things they’re doing.

* * *

Tags: [#A curiously optimistic bleak apocalypse one could say](https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/tagged/A-curiously-optimistic-bleak-apocalypse-one-could-say)

**Author's Note:**

> Analysis originally found here: <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/184217519500/honestly-i-think-one-of-the-biggest-appeals-to-me>


End file.
